EDWIN NAIDU
LOVE or loathe her, in her five tumultuous years, Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng has taken the University of Cape Town on an exhilarating, sometimes exasperating, even exciting, roller-coaster ride since her appointment on 1 July 2018.
She leaves behind a university deemed the best in Africa – the best-performing, according to five global rankings: Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2023, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2023, U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities Rankings 2022–2023, Center for World University Rankings 2022–2023, and Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities 2022.
Before she took office, they featured in one, however, the tenure of the first black female South African to achieve a PhD in mathematics education began at UCT on a sad note.
Just three weeks into the job, UCT was plunged into crisis when Professor Bongani Mayosi took his life.
He had attempted to leave twice under former vice-chancellor Dr Max Price but was given reassurances about his future, including the university’s offer of a Pro-Vice-Chancellor role which never materialised.
The 157-page report by Professor Thandabantu Nhlapo, Dr Somadoda Fikeni, Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela and Ms Nomfundo Walaza dismissed the notion that students had pushed the professor over the edge. UCT executive was also criticised for not adequately responding to the warning signals from Mayosi, which showed someone struggling emotionally and needing serious intervention.
The panel was told of several incidents, one in October or November 2016, where Mayosi was to address members of the Western Cape Government at a hotel in the city. He did not show up and was found sitting in his car at a car park nearby, staring into space. While attending a conference in Egypt in 2016, a colleague reported that Mayosi had problems speaking.
In London, following the visit to Egypt, Mayosi did not arrive at a session in which he was scheduled to participate.
A family friend found him in his hotel room, apparently after he had been walking around the city.
Although Phakeng was not yet in charge during Mayosi’s most challenging period during the 2015 student protests, she faced criticism for failing to follow the panel’s recommendations in its report in 2020.
During the second year of her tenure, UCT was shocked at the brutal murder of Uyinene Mrwetyana, one of around 47 student killings at tertiary institutions in 2019. It brought safety at universities into the spotlight.
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown failed to keep UCT out of the news.
Former Ombud Zetu Makamandela-Mguqulwa accused Phakeng of bullying in a report, alleging that the outgoing council chair Sipho Pityana had not acted on the complaints.
Phakeng labelled the report inconsistent with the terms of reference. But Pityana left this hot potato for the new council, which also ignored it.
More drama followed in 2021, when fires on Table Mountain spread, ravaging the Jagger library and
other buildings. UCT could not escape the news as the clean-up operation took shape.
In 2022 came the bombshell allegations that council chairperson Babalwa Ngonyama allegedly lied to Senate.
“Through all these, UCT took leadership of all the five major university world rankings. It is important to note that when I took office in 2018, UCT led in only one world ranking and the Business school had fallen off all the rankings. People also forget that we had lost students from our feeder schools when I took office. Today we have them back, and we are telling a different story about UCT’s performance under my leadership. I am a decisive leader who holds people accountable, which has produced results,” she told Inside Education.
When news of the end of her reign emerged, it was the former Stellenbosch University Vice-Chancellor Professor Chris Brink, a member of UCT’s remuneration subcommittee, who initially made an offer on 9 February to drop the governance charges and disband the panel led by retired Supreme Court of Appeal president, Judge Lex Mpati, in return for her departure.
This was stated in a letter by attorney Halton Cheadle. Retired judge Dennis Davis also expressed a view on the alleged evidence against Phakeng.
Phakeng signed the letter accepting the offer to leave, citing that her position had become untenable. But the council said the panel would continue its governance probe following condemnation by the Black Academic Caucus of the proposal to withdraw it if Phakeng went.
In recent months, Ngonyama, along with Phakeng, were persona non grata and instructed to stay away from council meetings. At the same time, the governance charges against them for their role in the departure of 61-year-old Argentinian Associate Professor Lis Lange DVC: Teaching and Learning at the end of April were being formulated.
Lange’s grievance was not being given a chance to finish her work.
It led to Senate breaching its own governance rules in admitting her complaint without the protocols they usually employ. Her letter was read out to Senate by Professor Sue Harrison, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and
Internationalisation, while Phakeng was abroad.
She disputed Ngonyama’s version of events leading to her departure before the Senate, wanting to end speculation and misrepresentation by the council chair. She signed the NDA on 17 March 2022.
Digesting the news that Phakeng had gone, a Council Member said: “Anti-transformation is the real enemy here. Just wish some people did not sell us out so badly, not referring to the Chair, but those with struggle credentials.”
A staff member said UCT could start from a clean slate and build on Phakeng’s good works.
Controversies and colour, she provided aplenty. Despite the heat, in September 2022, Phakeng won the inaugural Africa Education Medal, honouring changemakers who transform education.
Television personality Oprah Winfrey sent congratulations in a video.
Phakeng’s exit won’t end the probe into the governance allegations. But it will deprive South Africa
of one of higher education’s most vocal, sometimes outrageous, and outspoken voices.
Yet she kept silent when celebrated spinal surgeon Professor Robert Dunn was investigated for a
crude email in which he used the term “clinic bitch” against a young black medic.
He apologised, labelling it a joke. It was not funny. Phakeng addressed it internally, however. But things remain the
same.
The same month, the Twitterati vice-chancellor was endorsed when UCT was voted the
coolest university in a youth survey. No other vice-chancellor in the country posts videos exercising or dares to do the Jerusalema Dance challenge with a beaming smile. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdgn64U9LmY].
While the dust settles and UCT focuses on searching for a successor, Phakeng has returned to Johannesburg.
She plans next to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro.
INSIDE EDUCATION
